News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
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Many of you will have been counting down to this weekend's opening of the Beijing summer Olympiad using Apple's own Dashboard widget, made by the official Games timekeeper OMEGA.
If you're fortunate enough to be going to Beijing, definitely have a hunt for the Chinese capital's first Apple store, on Qianmen Street, on the south side of Tian'anmen Square. But if, like most of us, you won't be so lucky as to attend the games — whether due to prior engagement, global internet scam or dislike of vast crowds — you can still technologically slake your desire to follow the athletes in the sports of your choice from Australia.
Sure, you can sit home all day and watch everything on TV. But we know you have a life. Don't you? So we thought we'd check out which service providers are making special offers for the iPhone and laptop users among us.
When the opening ceremony starts at 8pm on Friday 8 August in Beijing's Bird's Nest Stadium, it will be 10pm in Sydney. Beijing is only two hours behind Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST), so experiencing the Games will be much easier than it was four years ago in Athens, which is seven hours behind. Closing ceremony is scheduled for 24 August from 9pm AEST.
You can of course simply use your iPhone or MacBook to access the official Games web site in English, or to view the broadcasts of various TV channels. If you have an iPhone and your local service provider is Telstra, you get live Channel 7 coverage of the Games on 3G phones, and you can also get live highlights by video-clip, SMS updates and up-to-date medal tallies, events schedules and stories. Some "Olympic Mobile Deals" are on offer too from Telstra — not that any of them include an iPhone.
If your service provider is Optus, you can get Channel 9 live sports news, score updates and details of events and athletes via myZoo — but funnily enough Optus doesn't seem to be promoting any special offers for 8-24 August. Neither is Optus's wholly-owned partner Virgin Mobile.
Neither, apparently, is Vodafone. Data plans will get you the usual browsing capability, but there don't appear to be any special deals relating to Olympic coverage. (Although, with a Virgin Mobile iPhone, you can visit the Vibe "Sports Bar" for real-time updates and reports on all sports, including the Games).
It's a pity, because the 2008 Summer Games would be a great opportunity to attract mobile media virgins to the plethora of services available, soon after the latest iPhone launch. 3G services are an excellent earner for telcos suffering from ever-shrinking revenues.
I have three cats, and one MacBook. You’d think that pure numerical superiority would be enough for the cats to feel confident in their lot — but that’s not entirely the case. Even the fact that the MacBook is only portable where the felines are fully mobile isn’t enough for them. You see, I’ve come to the conclusion that at least one of my cats is — there is no better word — envious of my MacBook.
Alex Kidman | Dec 10, 2007
Many decades ago, there was a linoleum layer’s apprentice. For the sake of personality, let’s call him Alf. Like most apprentices, Alf was given all the tedious, noisy, potentially painful jobs that nobody else wanted to do. On one particular day in 1962, Alf was given the job of nailing down a large Masonite board to some timber, in preparation for some truly hideous lino to be set down. Alf was bored, Alf was feeling rebellious, and Alf knew it would be a long time before anyone spotted what he was up to — so he went nuts. Spiral patterns of staples, double, triple and quadruple staples — this board wasn’t going to come up without a fight.
Alex Kidman | Dec 10, 2007
The MacBook range is second-rate for internet access, and it’s high time Apple did something about it. OK, perhaps that’s a bit unfair. On WiFi or Ethernet, the MacBook is a fine internet access device -- Draft 802.11n and all that -- but what if you’re out on the road? In an era when just about every notebook manufacturer offers several models with inbuilt mobile broadband capabilities, Apple’s notebooks are notably devoid of this handy option.
Dan Warne | Jan 7, 2008
The timing of the announcement is a curious tactic for Apple. Announcing a refresh of a major product line six days out from theMacworld Expo is a little weird; I can't think why Steve Jobs wouldn'thave wanted to pull a big blue sheet off a Mac Pro (the Xserve marketis pretty specialised when you come to it) and startle the world withit. Then again, perhaps he's got something even snazzier in mind; aFlash-based MacBook Pro that costs $300, reads your mind, does yourironing and has a Time Machine that works with any wireless networkconnection.
Alex Kidman | Jan 10, 2008
